All this great news about ITWGY and my fears about McFarlane are allayed slightly when you hear it's a small cameo role and not a full blown one. I have a good feeling about this fourth (and hopefully not final) feature.

Since no new Futurama projects are in production nor have they been commissioned by Fox studios, and given the length of time required to produce animation of this kind, it is viewed as likely that Into the Wild Green Yonder will be the final outing for Futurama. However, Matt Groening has expressed a desire to continue the Futurama franchise in some form, including as a theatrical film. Producer David X. Cohen has also stated that he remains hopeful, telling Wired magazine "I will no longer rule out any possible means of coming back to life, whether through more DVDs, webisodes or episodes.... I'm cautiously hopeful.

We're not going to hear anything about a potential renewal until ITWGY comes out, and the numbers come in. Given that it still could be the last Futurama ever, the numbers should be pretty good - especially since the first three movies' have been "better than expected". Which gives more hope for a renewal than not, honestly, though that does set up for a bigger fall so it's still best not too get too hopeful...

The length of time required to generate a single Futurama episode has nothing to do with a potential renewal of the series, though. I mean, the show came back after, like, four years of being "cancelled" and "over", so animation time isn't really something to worry about. If it's going to get renewed, then it's going to get renewed, even if it does come a year or two post-ITWGY.

It would be stupid of them to wait another year or more after the movies, though. Lose whatever momentum they've garnered.I have a feeling the decision's possibly already been made. One way or another. But yeah, as I've said before, they are probably going to wait until ITWGY's been released, before announcing anything.

Once again, the fate of the entire universe (and, very possibly, the universe next door) is in the hands of Philip J Fry and his friends at Planet Express. And, very likely, for the last time. Because this could well be the final Futurama from the clever minds of Mr D X Cohen and Mr M Groening. At the time of writing, there are no firm, locked-in and signed-off plans for any further Futurama outings — either a new series or more of these straight-to-DVD-then-cut-up-into-episodes-for-Comedy-Central movies. But, according to Wikipedia, "Matt Groening has expressed a desire to continue the Futurama franchise in some form, including as a theatrical film. Producer David X Cohen has also stated that he remains hopeful, telling Wired magazine, 'I will no longer rule out any possible means of coming back to life, whether through more DVDs, webisodes or episodes. I'm cautiously hopeful.' " Which leaves me very happy in the trouser region, because if they've brought Futurama back from the dead once, I'm sure they can do it again.

Anyway, Futurama fans, enough waffling — on to the review. And yes, once again the mighty Screenjabber has pipped everyone else at the post and managed to get the world's first review of Into The Wild Green Yonder (in fact, so early that the DVD cover art isn't ready yet!), just as we had firsts with the previous three: Bender's Big Score, The Beast With a Billion Backs and Bender's Game. And, as with those three, it's simply excellent stuff. But I've heard grumblings that our previous three ultra-early and exclusive reviews were a mite heavy on the spoilers, so I promise to take it easy this time

As you may deduce from the title, there is an ecological theme running through the entire movie. We begin on Mars, which is where much of the first act takes place. Property developer Leo Wong (Amy's dad) wants to demolish an entire arm of the Milky Way galaxy to make way for the biggest miniature-golf course in the universe (the first hole is on Pluto's moon, Hydra, and is a 6 billion mile par 2 — "a tough shot"). An accident during some demolition work on Mars (Wong warms up by destroying Mars Vegas to replace it with ... errr ... New Vegas) sees Fry develop mindreading abilities when a piece of women's jewellry gets lodged in his brain. Which leads to him wearing a tinfoil hat to keep the voices out, and joining the super-secret Legion of Mad Fellows (led by "Number 9 Man" — who, according to the Fox press release, is a "mysterious character from the earliest days of the series", but I can't say that I remember him). Meanwhile, Bender starts having an affair with the burlesque-dancer wife of Donbot, head of the robot Mafia (and yes, Clamps is back!) and Leela joins an eco-feminist collective and becomes an outlaw. Oh, and Professor Farnsworth is the scientist roped in to do the environmental impact report for Wong's planned mini-golf course .. which gets the go-ahead. The final piece of the galaxy in his way is a violet dwarf star, which plays a vital part in the climax, so I won't go into details. Except to say that once again, the fate of the universe depends on Fry (yeah, he gets that a lot).

There. That's about as spoiler-free as I can make it. Plot-wise, it's very tightly-woven and everything comes together nicely for the climax. And the finale ties everything up neatly while still leaving the way open for more, just in case. But I'm sure you're all wanting to know: is Into The Wild Green Yonder any good? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. For me, this was the best of the bunch of these straight-to-DVD-etc movies. It's got some brilliant lines ("bite my shiny metal hat"), and the makers have also stepped up the visual gags a notch — if a few of the Vegas scenes don't have you rolling on the floor, then you must be dead or else someone who simply hates Futurama. And if you're one of the latter, then what the hell are you doing reading this review?

I just know that a lot of you hardcore fans will complain that Professor Farnsworth, Hermes, Amy, Zoidberg and Zapp Brannigan don't get nearly as much screen time as Fry, Leela and Bender. But you know what? Futurama has always been mainly about the core trio — they are the heart, soul and eye of the show, and while we all love the secondary characters and want to see more of them, TV shows are always, always about the primaries (hey, don't blame me, I don't make the rules). And the primary trio are definitely on fine form here. Fry is, as always, the dumbest man in the universe; but he's such a lovable lug that he manages to survive, thrive and even save the day ... accidentally, of course. Leela is as determined, committed and sexy as ever. And Bender? Bender is Bender, just looking out for number one — but at least this time he's not under the control of outside forces.

So that's it, in a (slightly longer than I intended) nutshell — possibly the last we'll ever see of Futurama. I certainly hope not. I still think this show has legs — more legs than The Simpsons, at any rate. A few of my favourite highlights: Nixon is still president (but where's the head of David Frost? A missed opportunity for sure); the headless body of vice-pres Spiro Agnew cops a beating; Robby the Robot puts in a guest appearance; there's a flying pink VW Kombi van; Zapp Brannigan sings Duran Duran's Hungry Like a Wolf; janitor Scruffy makes his presence felt; Snoop Dogg's head is "head" of the Supreme Court; and we finally learn how Leela really feels about Fry.

Goodbye, sweet goofbag ...

EXTRAS **** Once again, Groening, Cohen and crew don't skimp on the goodies. The bonus features include: an audio commentary with Groening, Cohen, DiMaggio, LaMarche, producers Michael Rowe, Lee Supercinski and Patric Verrone, and director Avanzino; the "docudramarama" (well, a mockumentary) How We Make Futurama So Good; the featurettes Matt Groening and David X Cohen in Space, The Acting Technique of Penn Jillette, How To Draw Futurama In 10 Very Difficult Steps, 3D Models with Animator Discussion, Bender's Movie Theater Etiquette and Zapp Brannigan's Guide to Making Love at a Woman; deleted scenes; and storyboard animatics. The Blu-ray release has an extra feature: a video picture-in-picture (Bonus View) with the same participants as the audio commentary.

• Into The Wild Green Yonder is released in the UK on February 23 and the US on February 24, 2009

I'll put this in spoilers just in case there's anyone out there who's determined to not have the film even slightly spoiled...so if you're one of those people I'm warning you in advance not to read this as I'm essentially giving my views about what was said in the review:

At least we now know what's sticking out of Fry's head in the "Fry is dead" scene. Interesting, can't say I saw it coming.

Seems to me that Fry might inadvertently read Leela's mind to find out how she really feels...only that would be too easy of course so chances are he'll read it when she's feeling annoyed with him and probably gets completely the wrong end of the stick. This would lead him to feeling rather depressed so I'm guessing the "sweet note" at the end of the film is her telling him herself how she feels.

Just my theory, chances are it'll be nothing like that whatsoever. It does sound like it'll provide a solid conclusion to the Fry/Leela story, certainly more solid than the Devil's Hands anyway.

Also I'm guessing that everyone in that tin foil hat cult have got mindreading abilities of some sort? I'm guessing that's how they know of the secret that is alluded to in the trailer.

The film in general does sound incredibly promising going by that review and I for one can't wait.

Once again, the fate of the entire universe (and, very possibly, the universe next door) is in the hands of Philip J Fry and his friends at Planet Express. And, very likely, for the last time. Because this could well be the final Futurama from the clever minds of Mr D X Cohen and Mr M Groening. At the time of writing, there are no firm, locked-in and signed-off plans for any further Futurama outings  either a new series or more of these straight-to-DVD-then-cut-up-into-episodes-for-Comedy-Central movies. But, according to Wikipedia, "Matt Groening has expressed a desire to continue the Futurama franchise in some form, including as a theatrical film. Producer David X Cohen has also stated that he remains hopeful, telling Wired magazine, 'I will no longer rule out any possible means of coming back to life, whether through more DVDs, webisodes or episodes. I'm cautiously hopeful.' " Which leaves me very happy in the trouser region, because if they've brought Futurama back from the dead once, I'm sure they can do it again.

Anyway, Futurama fans, enough waffling  on to the review. And yes, once again the mighty Screenjabber has pipped everyone else at the post and managed to get the world's first review of Into The Wild Green Yonder (in fact, so early that the DVD cover art isn't ready yet!), just as we had firsts with the previous three: Bender's Big Score, The Beast With a Billion Backs and Bender's Game. And, as with those three, it's simply excellent stuff. But I've heard grumblings that our previous three ultra-early and exclusive reviews were a mite heavy on the spoilers, so I promise to take it easy this time

As you may deduce from the title, there is an ecological theme running through the entire movie. We begin on Mars, which is where much of the first act takes place. Property developer Leo Wong (Amy's dad) wants to demolish an entire arm of the Milky Way galaxy to make way for the biggest miniature-golf course in the universe (the first hole is on Pluto's moon, Hydra, and is a 6 billion mile par 2  "a tough shot"). An accident during some demolition work on Mars (Wong warms up by destroying Mars Vegas to replace it with ... errr ... New Vegas) sees Fry develop mindreading abilities when a piece of women's jewellry gets lodged in his brain. Which leads to him wearing a tinfoil hat to keep the voices out, and joining the super-secret Legion of Mad Fellows (led by "Number 9 Man"  who, according to the Fox press release, is a "mysterious character from the earliest days of the series", but I can't say that I remember him). Meanwhile, Bender starts having an affair with the burlesque-dancer wife of Donbot, head of the robot Mafia (and yes, Clamps is back!) and Leela joins an eco-feminist collective and becomes an outlaw. Oh, and Professor Farnsworth is the scientist roped in to do the environmental impact report for Wong's planned mini-golf course .. which gets the go-ahead. The final piece of the galaxy in his way is a violet dwarf star, which plays a vital part in the climax, so I won't go into details. Except to say that once again, the fate of the universe depends on Fry (yeah, he gets that a lot).

There. That's about as spoiler-free as I can make it. Plot-wise, it's very tightly-woven and everything comes together nicely for the climax. And the finale ties everything up neatly while still leaving the way open for more, just in case. But I'm sure you're all wanting to know: is Into The Wild Green Yonder any good? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. For me, this was the best of the bunch of these straight-to-DVD-etc movies. It's got some brilliant lines ("bite my shiny metal hat"), and the makers have also stepped up the visual gags a notch  if a few of the Vegas scenes don't have you rolling on the floor, then you must be dead or else someone who simply hates Futurama. And if you're one of the latter, then what the hell are you doing reading this review?

I just know that a lot of you hardcore fans will complain that Professor Farnsworth, Hermes, Amy, Zoidberg and Zapp Brannigan don't get nearly as much screen time as Fry, Leela and Bender. But you know what? Futurama has always been mainly about the core trio  they are the heart, soul and eye of the show, and while we all love the secondary characters and want to see more of them, TV shows are always, always about the primaries (hey, don't blame me, I don't make the rules). And the primary trio are definitely on fine form here. Fry is, as always, the dumbest man in the universe; but he's such a lovable lug that he manages to survive, thrive and even save the day ... accidentally, of course. Leela is as determined, committed and sexy as ever. And Bender? Bender is Bender, just looking out for number one  but at least this time he's not under the control of outside forces.

So that's it, in a (slightly longer than I intended) nutshell  possibly the last we'll ever see of Futurama. I certainly hope not. I still think this show has legs  more legs than The Simpsons, at any rate. A few of my favourite highlights: Nixon is still president (but where's the head of David Frost? A missed opportunity for sure); the headless body of vice-pres Spiro Agnew cops a beating; Robby the Robot puts in a guest appearance; there's a flying pink VW Kombi van; Zapp Brannigan sings Duran Duran's Hungry Like a Wolf; janitor Scruffy makes his presence felt; Snoop Dogg's head is "head" of the Supreme Court; and we finally learn how Leela really feels about Fry.

Goodbye, sweet goofbag ...

EXTRAS **** Once again, Groening, Cohen and crew don't skimp on the goodies. The bonus features include: an audio commentary with Groening, Cohen, DiMaggio, LaMarche, producers Michael Rowe, Lee Supercinski and Patric Verrone, and director Avanzino; the "docudramarama" (well, a mockumentary) How We Make Futurama So Good; the featurettes Matt Groening and David X Cohen in Space, The Acting Technique of Penn Jillette, How To Draw Futurama In 10 Very Difficult Steps, 3D Models with Animator Discussion, Bender's Movie Theater Etiquette and Zapp Brannigan's Guide to Making Love at a Woman; deleted scenes; and storyboard animatics. The Blu-ray release has an extra feature: a video picture-in-picture (Bonus View) with the same participants as the audio commentary.

 Into The Wild Green Yonder is released in the UK on February 23 and the US on February 24, 2009

I really doubt there are any projects in the works. If you remember, we had rumors about a possible comeback two years before BBS came out. There's just no way something like that would remain a total secret. If there have been talks, they've been informal, and only between DXC, Matt, and the upper tiers of FOX. Remember, as far as FOX is concerned, everything comes down to how much money can be made. They'll think long and hard before putting Futurama back on the air. We may all think its the best show of all time, but we have to compete with the vast majority that thinks crap like "Sex and the City" is teh roXXoRs.

but we have to compete with the vast majority that thinks crap like "Sex and the City" is teh roXXoRs.

This should get your television watching privileges removed. That and Friends.

They will probably wait untill ITWGY figures are in to do anything about it, even though the sales of the first 2 dvd's were supposed to be beyond their expectations. Fox will sit and wait and count the money, and if it adds up to enough at the end then we will see more. But don't expect Fox to make any decision until 95% of the pennies have been counted.

All these decisions are purely based on money, if they think Futurama would be worth bringing back from a financial perspective then we'll probably see it return after the Wild Green Yonder in some form.

The Simpson's isn't still getting made because it's good...it's pretty terrible these days if anything...but it's still a money spinner and therefore will still get produced.

If and when Comedy Central wants more new Futurama may be an issue as well. There also have been some musings about bringing Futurama back to FOX. CC has only shown the first two DVD's so far, right? So a broadcast schedule would mean a need for new episodes in the fall or winter (9-12 months yet). It's a cinch that the DVD's so far are money makers and a good investment. But the present economic disaster has made money hard to come by in loan form, although I haven't heard the entertainment industry is struggling right now.

Y'know, I think that "Into the Wild Green Yonder" will be the final stab into the Fry/Leela relationship arc that will kill all passion and shipping for it. It's almost like witnessing a murder.

Sad to say, I agree with you. The Leela/Fry arc has gone on way too long, been very convoluted and has ended up making Fry look like some loser-stalker and Leela becoming an unsympathetic, unlikable person.

The really sad thing is that it didn't have to be that way, that the two didn't have to be paired-offed or married to make both more likable and still have tension between the two.

I do hope we do get a couple of more years of eps, going back to the 22 minute format. This time with the two acknowledging the feelings for the other yet still finding ways to piss each other off.

Would someone please explain to me....WHEN THE HELL IT'S COMING OUT IN AUSTRAIA? DISCRIMINATING MUCH! I mean really, how much has the uk bribed to get the movie out there BEFORE the country in which the movie was written???Is there no justice in the movie making buisness?

Wow! Sounds very promising! Awesome! Even if it is the last of Futurama, at least Matt Greoning will continue it possibly as a live-action movie! That would be really cool! Can't wait to see Bender's affair, Leela as an outlaw, Fry joining a gang that wears tin foil hats! Can't see to see what Leela really feels about Fry.

One thing bothered me about the trailer. When it shows Bender saying, "And if you think that's......" why was he wearing a space helmet. He's a robot, he don't need one, he can't breathe! Oh, and will it be revealed about why Leela is 'the other'?

Would someone please explain to me....WHEN THE HELL IT'S COMING OUT IN AUSTRAIA? DISCRIMINATING MUCH! I mean really, how much has the uk bribed to get the movie out there BEFORE the country in which the movie was written???Is there no justice in the movie making buisness?

No, there is not.

Region 2 comes out before Region 1 because region 1 gets every other fucking thing in the universe before us. So deal with it, meatbaguette.

Legal Notice & Disclaimer: "Futurama" TM and copyright FOX, its related entities and the Curiosity Company. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, duplication or distribution of these materials in any form is expressly prohibited. As a fan site, this Futurama forum, its operators, and any content on the site relating to "Futurama" are not explicitely authorized by Fox or the Curiosity Company.